Breaking Silence, Bearing Consequences: Male Patients' Retrospective Narratives of Clinician-Perpetrated Sexual Abuse

Sexual misconduct by health care clinicians is a type of sexual abuse with significant consequences for patients, although there is limited literature examining the experience of male survivors.

To examine the effects of sexual misconduct experienced by male patients during young adulthood by the same healthcare clinician.

Using BERTopic modeling, a machine learning-based topic modeling method, we analyzed the narratives from records in a class-action lawsuit involving men aged 18-22 at the time of the abuse, who provided narratives years later that included reflections on their experiences over time.

Three themes were described by the men: "Violation of Trust in Clinical Settings," "Breaking Silence Through Public Disclosure," and "Long-term Psychological and Relational Consequences."

There is an enduring psychological impact of clinician sexual misconduct on male survivors, and a subsequent need for trauma-informed, gender-sensitive forensic nursing care in every patient encounter.